working through it
got a short boarding gig, survived another too many plates situation, and hosted our last cafe popup of the year
The good news is that I’m currently employed as I’m writing this. The bad news is that the job is ending next week. But, good news again is that I’m filled with hope as of right now… Here’s a comic:
I worked in animation for like 4 or something years on like 3 shows previously and I mostly worked from home for all of it. I’m on a pretty short term project storyboarding at DTVA right now and it’s my first time really coming in frequently and taking up space in a cube (I’m hoteling lol) and seeing my coworkers and taking advantage of what the campus has to offer… It’s been SO nice. For one, it’s nice having some form of employment after a year and a half of riding the struggle bus. I say I was unemployed for a year and a half, but I did work in a kitchen for a bit (until hospital) and do a teeny tiny bit of freelance, and some odd jobs like being the door man for the Brokeback Mountain rerelease afterparty at Desert 5 Spot in collaboration with the queer line dance group Stud Country. Thank you Cley for hiring me for that! And of course, I’ve been working endlessly to do the popups and events and dinner service collaborations- just baking and working in a kitchen and generating an income kind of based off vibes. Things have been financially really rough the past year and a half is all I’m saying. On top of my health being absolutely bonkers. It still is!!! But I’m managing. And I’m extremely grateful to my director (THANKS DAVE!!) for bringing me onto this project and seeing some kind of potential in me to board again. And all the people that have been cheering me on and supporting me with all my projects (and my health problems). It means the whole world to me!!
DTVA holds figure drawing sessions once a week with two teachers that alternate every other week. When I was working previously, we did the sessions on zoom cause covid. They very recently started hosting the sessions in-person again and I’ve been going to like, all of them. I LOVE figure drawing… My favorite one being CDA’s uninstructed Sunday sesh ($15 cash only), which is back on schedule right now. I love a full circle setup with draw horses and my huge drawing board. But it’s nice that the work figure drawings are FREE! And they provide materials and boards, but I usually bring my own because I prefer using layout bond and fountain pens when I do figure drawing. I do wish we had a dedicated room for figure drawing at work… It’s in a hallway right now, so the models aren’t allowed to be fully nude. Maybe someday! Would you guys wanna see more of my figure drawings?
So, I got intensely busy at one point this month. I had several custom cake orders, some on the same day. A couple personal project deadlines (or maybe it would make more sense to call them friend group project deadlines? they were group projects kinda). Two Thinking of Her popups this month! Work deadlines! And my family paid me a visit for the first time since I moved in 2021. Lots going on… I was filled with residual anxiety kind of nonstop for like two or three weeks straight, but I hung in there and got through every single task I committed myself to. We lived! A lot of days were me waking up early before work to bake a cake, and then go to work, and then come home and bake some more for a popup and then work on the other projects between baking. It was exhausting and I didn’t get very much sleep for a while. Corey says I have a habit of overcommitting, and I don’t like to bail either. But I did say no to doing a mahjong night first week of October because I want to commit to resting. We’re thinking of doing a mahjong night for Halloween since it lands on a Friday this year- would anyone come, though?
For the first time in the history of me and Antoine collaborating on this cafe popup- we sold out of (basically) everything an hour or two before close! I don’t think I’ve ever personally sold out of my baked goods when we’ve done the cafes, but somehow it worked out this way this time. Hopefully not too many people arrived late and disappointed. I scaled down a bit and did a smaller amount of cheesecakes total, but same amount of slices- they’re just smaller and cheaper. I also managed to fit in time to do black sesame cookies and matcha blondies. Not a fan of packaging them, but luckily my friend Carissa and her partner Chris were visiting from SF the whole weekend, so they graciously packed all of my cookies and blondies for me while I hurriedly packed everything else to get ready for the cafe that morning. We actually ran a bit late, but no one came right at opening. It was a freaking whirlwind, but we managed the line, and Antoine and his team busted out 46 breakfast sandos as quickly as they could. And they sold out SO quickly. I’m hoping they’ll prepare to make a teeny bit more next time, so I can have one, too! The cafes are a lot of work, and it was really challenging juggling my energy with work and baking, but it was sooo rewarding to see everyone try our stuff and come out to support. And to sell us out!! What an incredible accomplishment! The popups aren’t always super successful, and that can make it kind of hard to keep going, but when they are, it feels really good to have put in so much work and effort and care. So thank you!
Since my friends from SF were in town, I wanted to show them some good food cause they love to eat. I took them to Holbox and Firstborn and a couple other places. I’d been to Holbox once before for my birthday, but it was my first time trying Firstborn! They were both soooo amazing, and I owe my friends so much for treating me to our meals. I finally logged my first entries into beli (the restaurant ranking app) because of these two places. Does anyone here use beli? So curious. Antoine regularly updates it, you should check out his account. Not sure how to link that… I do think the app is really cool in concept, but it does add another step to eating out that might take away from the real time enjoyment of the meal. But I think it’s nice looking at other peoples’ rankings so I can get a rec for where to eat sometimes haha!
My family was also just visiting over the more recent weekend, and their idea of a vacation is: eating and napping. Again, this was their first time visiting me since I moved to Los Angeles. My brother visits semi-often and helps me out with my baking prep sometimes, but my mom and my stepdad never visit. I’ve been begging them to come visit for a while! I just wanted them to see how I’m doing and how I’m living. Which, maybe this past year, has been mostly in squalor… but I still wanted them to visit! And they finally did. My mom had us deep cleaning my apartment on Friday and Saturday, but we found time to eat in between all that cleaning.
I took them to Jinsol Gukbap. Pork and sausage soup for me and my brother and my mom, leek pancake for the table, galbi tang for my dad, and cold noodles for Corey. Then we went to Wat Thai the next day after I spent the morning baking. BBQ skewers to share, duck noodle soup for my dad, hainan chicken for everyone else, some calamari for the table, more fishballs for the table, thai teas, and lots of dessert that I can’t even remember anymore. We ordered Daichan for dinner and brought it home and at around my tiny kitchen table. Daimyo chirashi for me and my brother, tuna poki soba for Corey, salmon steak plate for my mom, karaage bowl for my dad, agedashi tofu to share, garlic baby squid for me and my brother, and uhhh miso eggplant for the table. My usual order is actually the tuna poki soba- I always get it when I’m feeling down, and it always manages to make me feel better. And on their final morning, we went to Liu’s Cafe in ktown and had a feast of a breakfast. Picture with labels below. It took over an hour to sit our party of 5, which was kind of insane, so maybe don’t go if you’re a party bigger than 3. They closed down their ice cream annex and expanded the dining into that room, so in theory they have more seating… twice as much seating… but it’s still hard for them to sit bigger parties. And… then they were off! It was pretty pleasant, and I’d like for them to come visit again. Hopefully with grandma next time! My grandma’s also never seen my apartment or how I’ve been living all this time. I’d like to cook them all a meal someday. ^_^
Anyway, back to work! I’m wrapping up this 7 week gig at the end of next week… so please think of me!! Tell people to hire me! Tell people I’m good at drawing/boarding! Tell people I work really freaking hard! I want to keep drawing and making cartoons because I love it so much!! So, manifest for me!! I’m looking for work mainly in storyboarding/animation industry, but I’m happy to do other creative work that would fit with my skillset. Sorry, had to say it. I want to work!!!
Thanks again for always being around, see you next time! :-)
-nicey
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i need you all to know i spend A LOT of time drawing the comics and writing these 🙂↕️🙂↕️
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